1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to cleaning tools, and more particularly, to cleaning tools for removing debris from interior and exterior surfaces of pipes and fittings of various diameters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional preparation of pipes and fittings for soldering, welding or gluing, commonly involves removing or cleaning grease, metallic oxides (e.g., rust), dirt and/or like debris from the pipes and fittings to ensure that the solder or glue will adhere to the pipe surface or that the welded joint will not contain impurities. This task commonly requires the use of a variety of brushes and/or abrasive elements to scour the internal and external surfaces of the pipes and fittings. In addition, a number of different size cleaning tools are normally required to clean pipes and fittings of different diameters.
Most prior pipe cleaning devices can only clean either the inner or the outer surface of pipes. Typical examples include U.S. Pat. No. 2,551,875, which can only be used to clean the inner surface of pipes, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,505 to Vocker, et al., which can only be used to clean the outer surfaces of pipes.
Several prior pipe cleaning devices have been designed to clean both the internal and external surfaces of pipes. Examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,551,875 to Cotton and U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,218 to Lewis. These devices, however, suffer from several drawbacks.
Some of these prior cleaning devices only accommodate pipes and fittings of a particular diameter. For example, the tool disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,218 to Lewis is designed to fit a particular size diameter of a pipe or fitting. The tool is thus dedicated to a particular size pipe.
Other prior cleaning tools, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,551,895 to Cotton, are complicated, which increases manufacturing costs and decreases reliability. Moreover, these devices are rendered useless once the cleaning elements of the devices are worn.